Routines, scenes and automations, oh my! These are some of the advanced smart home features that our digital assistants have or recently gained, but what are they and which are making our homes smarter? Let’s start with what I think are the lowest tier: Routines and Scenes, which are basically the same but have different names.

There are some minor differences between the implementations taken by Amazon, Apple and Google, but over time, I’m sure all three companies will improve the ability to use one command to control multiple actions. At least I hope so. Google Assistant Routines are limited to six different presets (shown below) and for now you can only choose from a select group of smart home actions, for example.

This is good momentum for the smart home. But the reality is that routines or scenes, aren’t truly “smart”. All these do is extend a voice command from a one-to-one action to a one-to-many action. Essentially, this is still a UI, or user interface tweak.

Automations though? Those are a step above routines in my book because they make your home take actions on device-triggered or time of day events. And they don’t require any voice interaction, which is extremely useful in certain situations. They do, however, require a smart home hub or some other centralized smart home “brain”, unless you want to use a third-party application that can tie some of your devices together.

I’ve had some readers suggest that we don’t need hubs. Instead they argue that we need defined IoT standards or that we can just use the cloud as a hub.

Those are valid thoughts, but the reality is that widespread IoT standards aren’t coming anytime soon, if ever. Using the cloud is great until your home’s internet connection goes down: In that case a local copy of your smart home devices with automation rules running on a small computing device would work, but that essentially is a hub.

Hubs solve a key challenge: individual devices in the smart home typically don’t know about each other. Instead, a hub is what bridges data from smart switches, bulbs, locks, webcams and sensors that can all use different radio technologies. Put another way: The hub is the traffic cop in the intersection of data created by all of our smart devices. It knows the user-programmed rules of who should do what and when in the smart home.

Let me offer a simple example: If I want to walk through my front door at 10pm and have the inside lights automatically turn on, how can the smart door lock tell the lights to illuminate?

Currently, it can’t. The lock and lights have no relationship that they know of. Nor do they have any processing power to programmatically make some cause-effect event happen. That’s where the hub comes in. It can see from the door lock that I’m home. And using a rules based system, along with the time of day, it can tell the smart lights to turn on through automation.

This is is why I think it’s so important that Google create a hub, especially since both Amazon and Apple both have one for the home. Granted, the Amazon Echo Plus doesn’t yet support such automations but it’s a matter of time before that happens. If you have an Apple TV, HomePod, or plugged in iPad, you’ve got a hub can automate your HomeKit devices. Apple’s implementation is in the Home app, and it’s surprisingly easy to use.

In my vision of the smart home capability ladder, routines sit below automations because they make the home experience “smarter” with less user input. Currently, automations are as smart as the home gets.

Above automations though, I look to autonomy. By autonomy, I mean a central home hub that combines context, user patterns and personal information to anticipate actions and even suggest them to us. But, that’s a ways off just yet, so for now, I’ll be content to use routines and automation in my home.

We’ve been hearing about Google Assistant’s routines for months now. Cody first discovered them in a Google app teardown last September, then they were officially announced in October, but Google was mum about them until last month when it said routines will launch “in the coming weeks in the US.” A few weeks have passed since then, so it’s about time we start seeing these routines for real. We haven’t spotted them on our phones just yet, but their support page just went live and now we know almost everything there is about them

There will be 6 routines to start: Good Morning, Bedtime, Leaving home, I’m home, Commuting to work, and Commuting home.

If you’re not familiar with routines, they’re similar to, but more powerful than smart home shortcuts. You can program different actions with a key difference over standard shortcuts: Routines can handle multiple actions with a single command.

For example, I have one called “Relaxation mode” that dims the lights in my office and also tune my office Sonos to New Age music. Instead of using two shortcuts or voice commands, I have both actions happen with a single command. You can even add more actions to a routine, such as dimming lights, closing your shades and firing up Netflix on the TV for a “Movie night” routine.

Alexa already has Routines and Google says it will be rolling them out for its product line in the coming weeks. I can’t wait. Until then, I’ve had to use a third-party app to tie multiple actions to a command. In my case, “Relaxation mode” is a custom routine I set up in a fantastic app called Yonomi. You can accomplish similar results with IFTTT and Stringify.

Here’s the thing though: What happens to these third party services once the major platforms all have native routines?

Granted, some of the native routine support may be limited, so there might still be room for a Yonomi, IFTTT or Stringify. In fact, Google today said “you’ll be able to use six routines that help with your morning, commutes to and from work, and evening at home.” That leads me to believe Google’s first implementation will be somewhat limited. So I’m not uninstalling Yonomi just yet.

Regardless, it’s likely that native integrations and expanded functionality will take the place of third-party services so they’ll either have to pivot, adapt or maybe even go away. Perhaps one of them is purchased since they all have solid user bases and, for the most part, easy to use interfaces.

Stringify is already off the block since it was purchased by Comcast in September. Unless Comcast wants to keep the brand alive, I think Stringify will simply melt into Comcast’s Xfinity smart home line.

I recently suggested that IFTTT would be a smart buy for Amazon. We’ll see if that happens. That would actually leave Yonomi as a prime Google target and since I’m already a Yonomi user with multiple Google Home products, I wouldn’t mind seeing that happen.

In any case, I don’t see much of a long-term future for a standalone, third-party smart home integration service for two reasons: Routines are becoming native features in assistants and because the digital assistant platforms have quickly worked to integrate with as many apps, services and devices as they can.

Google today announced some new features for Google Assistant. The company says that Google Assistant will be available in more than 30 languages by the end of 2018, up from the eight languages that it currently supports.

Some of the new languages that Google Assistant will learn include Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish, and Thai.

Google Assistant will also learn to be multilingual this year, meaning you’ll be able to speak to it in more than one language and it’ll understand you.

Google is also bringing Routines to Google Assistant. Starting next week, you’ll be able to use six routines that’ll help you get multiple things done with one command. For example, you can say “Hey Google, I’m home” and your Google Assistant will turn on your lights, share your home reminders, play music, and more.

Also coming next week are location-based reminders for your smart speaker. This feature is already available on phones, but next week you’ll be able to tell your Google Home to remind you to get milk at the grocery store and when you get there, the Google Assistant on your phone will remind you.

Finally, Google says that it’s working with device makers and carriers to make Google Assistant better. Through the Assistant Mobile OEM program, Google is helping device makers to build deeper integrations into their devices with Google Assistant. Soon, integrations on devices from LG, Sony, and Xiaomi will be available.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Carrier program will help Google Assistant users get more details on their service, such as getting customer support and adding new services. Sprint, Koodo, Telus, and Vodafone are already working on integrations with Google Assistant.

Google Assistant is rolling out its ‘routines’ feature and plans to embed itself deeper into devices — even integrating directly with telcos.

First announced back in October, the routines feature allows several commands to be linked together from a single phrase. For example, saying “Hey Google, I’m home” may switch on your lights, play some music, set a comfortable temperature, and get the kettle boiling.

Perhaps most intruiging are Google’s plans to integrate with telecoms providers

The virtual assistant integrates with a wide range of IoT devices today for specific actions such as turning on your Hue lights. Google will soon integrate with the specific hardware of a device so a user could say “Hey Google, open my camera’s portrait mode” for smartphones with the feature.

While it’s camera-based features Google is focusing on first, the company plans to expand it to other innovations that hardware manufacturers may debut in the coming years. Initial partners include Sony, LG, and Xiaomi.

Perhaps most intruiging are Google’s plans to integrate with telecoms providers. Users could ask for things such as how much data is left in their plan, add certain features like roaming passes, or even ask for programs to be recorded in the case of companies which also offer DVRs with TV packages.

There’s no current timeline for the feature, but it sounds as if carriers are being supportive of Google’s plans. Initial carriers will include Sprint, Vodafone, Koodo, and Telus.

Are you impressed by Google Assistant’s features? Let us know in the comments.

There’s a fresh version of the Google app rolling out on the beta channel right now. This one doesn’t appear to put a lot of new stuff in front of us for use right now, but there are hints scattered around that tablet support is ready to launch. A teardown brings the more interesting clues, including more capabilities for Routines, additional details for the screen-enabled Google Home (i.e. Quartz), and even downloadable podcasts.

You might remember Google announced a lot of Assistant things at its big event last month. One of those things was routines for linking multiple Assistant devices together with a single command. Well, Amazon just beat Google to the punch. Alexa now supports routines and several other new features.

Routines on Alexa are essentially the same thing Google announced last month but as thus far failed to deploy. You will be able to create a custom command in Alexa, then connect several different actions to it.